Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-03-14


can frame the committees, in my belief
more satisfactorily than a caucus Of eacl
party would do it."
who, do you suppose, will take Mr..
Morrison's place as Chairman Of the Way:
and Means?H
II don't know. Mills, of Texas, stands
second in the committee, and is q capable
man. But if were Speaker I'd put Mr..
Randall at the head of THAT committe. Ran
dali is tired of working outside of the
party. He sees what everybody sees, that
he has come to occupy a ridiculous posi-
ton with his small following, unable to
accomplish anything positive and reduced
to the alternative very bad thing for a
political leader-of simply preventing any
thing being done. So long as Morrison
remained in the House this was perhaps
inevitable. The two men could not agree
On anything. 1t is the fashion to abuse
Randall as a marplot, but really Mr.. Nor
rison has not accomplished anything as
the leader Of the House either. There are
some signs that Randall sees the awk-
wardness of his position. He is drifting
over into the Republican party, which
does not want him, and where he would
play a very humble part. He cannot 90
on another session playing off horse in the
Democratic party without an utter and
ridiculous failure for himself"
Would he take the craftsmanship of the
Ways and Means?'
~ don't know; but l guess he would.
In that position he would be able to pre-
pare and introduce a tariff bill, which he
wants to do. His efforts in this direction
at the last two sessions were absurd, and
l have no doubt he sees that himself. The
chairman of Appropriations, as the COM
mittees are now arranged, has nothing to
do with revenue measures, and Randall
coming in with a tariff or other revenue bill
had naturally the i'll will of the Ways and
Means committee, who saw him ploughine
in their corn field"
"Would Mr.. Randall prepare a tariff
bill?"
'If he were chairman of the Ways and
Means it would De his duty, with the help
of his committee, to prepare revenue meas
ures for the House. There is q large re-
dundant revenue which ought to be Topped
of. That will be the most important and
most urgent work of the next Congress.
The Ways and Means Committee will not
be able to avoid it; and l have no doubt
that Mr.. Randall would take hold of that
question with vigor. Whether his plan
would get the approval of the committee
or of the House is not important. Some
thing has got to be done rs soon as Congress
assemblies, because long before then, unless
the President calls a spring session, the
surplus revenue will be piling up in the
Treasury ut the rate of S. 0O, 900 or
$4,000, 600, and perhaps more, per month,
and the business of the country will 90 to
smash by reason of this contraction and
squeeze. For my part l believe it will be
easy to get Randall 10 work in the traces,
and it ought TO be done. 1t can't be done
by beating him over the head, but he can
be a useful and important man if he is
put where he ought to be. He has learned
something in this last Congress. He has
learned, for instance, that he can't touch
the tariff anywhere, no matter how GIN
gerly, without arousing the fury of the
whole protectionist gang. | suppose the
scheme to gerrymander him out of Con
gress, which is now going on at Harris
burg, is inspired by the steel rail ring,
because he dared to propose in his tariff
to cut down the duty on steel rails. He
wanted to put wool on the free
list, but that again brought down the Ohio
protectionists on him and they raj him
OF. As n matter of fact, he was never aDle
to get his own followers in this Congress to
agree with him upon tariff changes. He
had to submit to their bullying, and that
was not pleasant for a man like Randall.
He wa in q tolerably wretched position
with those people, because he couldn't
stand alone, and to get them to stand with
him, few as they were, he had to make con-
c~essions very much against his will and
against his general plan. Put him at the
head of the Ways and Means and | believe
he will do good work, and as leader OF the
House he would keep the party acting to-
gether. That's all I've got TO say on the
matter, except this-that we can't afford
to repeat in the next Congress the quarrels
which divided us in this one"